What Is the General Will

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10692879
AutoresGopal Sreenivasan (0000-0002-6416-9767, autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen109
Número4
Páginas545-581
Fecha de publicación2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Philosophical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00318108-109-4-545
OpenAlexW2067098286
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18

What is the general will? In this essay, I propose a simple and straightforward answer. Rousseau's general will, I shall argue, is the totality of unrescinded decisions made by a community-that is, of an association of individuals contractually constituted as a moral and collective body-when its deliberation is subject to certain constraints.' The interpretation of Rousseau that I shall develop in support of this answer will be partial in various respects. Most importantly, perhaps, the textual basis of my discussion will be confined to the Social Contract.2 Since this is the critical text for any account of the general will, I shall assume that this restriction in focus is not unreasonable. Furthermore, I shall not pay any attention either to the immediate historical context in which Rousseau wrote or to his location in a longer tradition of theorizing about a general will.3

Analytic philosophy · Contemporary philosophy · Epistemology · General interest · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought